


Read

by abetternameneeded



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:34:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26876767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abetternameneeded/pseuds/abetternameneeded
Summary: A short ficlet about alice learning how to read
Relationships: Wishverse Captain Hook | Detective Rogers & Alice Jones | Tilly
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Read

Alice was laying on her stomach, her books strewn haphazardly on the stone floor around her. Her pencil tapping a rhythm on the edge of anything that could make a sound. The stone tower creating an echo. Killian knew that Alice had so little in the way kf freedom that he allowed her to get away with a lot more than most kids. He was sitting cross legged next to her.

"Can you read that?" Killian had been teaching Alice how to read. Which was an undertaking far different from every one lf his previous quest. All the death and destruction he'd seen and caused in his long life could never have prepared him for teaching his five year old daughter every subject she would potentially need. He figured he was lucky that Alice wanted to learn and so didn't fight him on it. Did some children? He wasn't sure.

"The brown dog." Alice was young and learning and she fumbled through the words sounding them out letter by letter.

"Yeah, good job," Alice was glad to hear him telling her she'd done it right. That was fun. She'd sakd the words right. Read them correctly. The brown dog. She knew most of those words. But what was a dog exactly?

"Papa, what's a dog?" Killian paused for a moment. Oh. He hadn't thought about that. He'd gotten a book to help her lewrn how to read that was filled with common phrases. And he had not thought about the fact that the common phrases would include things outside of her tower. He'd wanted to get her out five years ago. He'd been trying for five years. But so fair, he'd failed. And she was still trapped and he coupdb't vhsnge that at thr moment.

"It's an animal," he told her. Alice looked at him. She didn't know that word either.

"What's an animal?" Alice's questions were like a dagger driving the guilt back up the surface of Killian's mind, reminding him that he needed to make sure he taught her things that most kids would just discover on their own through exploring the world around them. Remind him that his dsighter didn't have acsess to the world the way every other child would. Reminding him that it was his job to at least try to make that more bearable.

"It's, I don't know how to explain it, Starfish. You know like the little birds that fly outside?" Alice nodded. "That's an animal. And," killian paused trying to find other examples she would have seen. "And spiders. That kind of thing. Things that are alive." Killian struggled through the explanation. Alice wasn't around a lot of things. Sometimes that fact was made even more painfully obvious than normal. Killian had taken to drawing pictures of the things Alice wanted to know about. He told her he'd do that later.

"Okay," Alice liked learning. "Papa, can you help me with this one?" Alice pointed to the next sentence that had a much longer word. He helped her sound it out and then they went about their day. Killian's guilt eventually going back down every time Alice laighed or demanded that he help her. Every sloght reminder that she knew he loved her making him feel a little bit better.


End file.
